Busting The Ghost In The Machine

This is Lever Weekly, a recap of our work from the past week. If you only read one email from us all week, this should be it.

Here’s what The Lever published this week:

👊 Rage Against The Algorithm. As Trump goes all in on artificial intelligence, automated systems are already ruining lives by denying people vital services, trapping them in surveillance networks, and flagging them as potential future offenders. Now one man is fighting back.

🔒 BONUS: If you think AI is screwing you over, here’s how you can stop it.

🌱 Trump Moves To Kill The Environmental Magna Carta. The mother of all environmental laws is about to get thrown in the dumpster.

✈️ Trump Just Limited Your Payout For Airline Mishaps. Officials are now delaying a rule that would have punished airlines for overbooking your seat or losing your bags.

🪂 How CEO Golden Parachutes Fuel Merger Mania. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to give executives bonuses for selling out to the highest bidder…

🚨 Trump Regulators Flip The Script On Antitrust. In a surprise to us all, Trump’s new antitrust regulators have embraced their progressive predecessor’s trust-busting agenda.

📰 The Billionaires’ Secret Newspaper. All the news that’s fit to spin.

🛩️ Is It Still Safe To Fly? Aviation and antitrust expert Bill McGee breaks down recent airplane disasters and reveals the real risks to our airspace.

🔒 Bonus Episode For Paid Subscribers: “Nixonian Behavior On Steroids.” Watergate whistleblower John Dean speaks with David Sirota about Trump’s grab for unitary executive power.

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🎥 Pop culture goes agitprop. Jeff Bezos recently gave Melania Trump a $40 million Bret Rattner Amazon Prime documentary over dinner at Mar-a-Lago. At the same time, Hollywood is making it almost impossible for anyone to see a critically acclaimed star-studded film about the darker side of Trump’s rise. It all reflects how newly consolidated corporate studios have been using their market power to control the discourse.

🏚️ Blackstone’s own eviction marshal. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) introduced a bill last week that would strip away the last pandemic-era protections for renters and allow landlords to give tenants less than three days’ notice before changing the locks. Hagerty’s top donor is private equity group Blackstone, the country’s largest landlord and serial evictor that has admitted to ramping up evictions to boost its bottom line.

🏠 We are so back (to 2008). The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under Trump just retreated on the bureau’s previous efforts to protect Americans from predatory home loans. So-called “home equity contracts,” which entice homebuyers and homeowners with an initial lump sum “investment” that is  later repaid with a share of the house’s increased value, don’t adhere to the same standards as regular mortgages. 

Every week, we bring paid subscribers a newsletter full of policy wins, environmental victories, and initiatives that make life better for working people. This week, an Indigenous rights activist walks free, a gun-loving state holsters its most dangerous weapons, abortion care resumes where it should have never stopped, and shoppers abandon corporate sycophants. 

Lever Leaders provide us with our highest level of support and score additional perks in return, including an annual gift of limited-edition Lever merchandise, a yearly gift subscription for friends and family, and access to an exclusive Lever staff meeting for a sneak peek at our future plans. Every week, we highlight folks who’ve taken that step.

• Luis R.: “Good journalism is indeed needed to hold power accountable, so I'd like to support it.”

• Jacobin — Author Cory Doctorow discussed how Master Plan helps explain the country’s consolidation of corporate oligarchy.
• Alternet — Former labor secretary Robert Reich listed The Lever as one of the best independent media outlets.
• Democracy Now! — David Sirota joined Amy Goodman to discuss how The Lever is covering this political moment.
• Environmental Health News — The environmental outlet featured our coverage of Trump’s assault on a landmark environmental impact law.
• The Seattle Medium — The local publication featured our reporting on Sen. Tim Scott’s connections to the banking industry as he moves to oversee banking regulation.
• Washington Informer — The publication featured our story on Congressional Republicans’ campaign to protect banks’ overdraft fees.